


when the ember valley turns golden

by i_make_the_best_french_toast



Category: Fortnite (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Angst, Drinking Games, Established Relationship, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gossip, M/M, Partying, Prom, Tarot, Theatre, Underage Drinking, Witchcraft, brutus and midas ditch prom to go to a high school party, brutus is the troy bolton of ember valley high, jules as a psychic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-21
Updated: 2020-09-21
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:20:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,410
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26575912
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/i_make_the_best_french_toast/pseuds/i_make_the_best_french_toast
Summary: “Come on, everyone,” he groaned out loud. “Brutus and I’ll show you guys how it’s done. Yeah?” Brutus seemed hesitant at first, but nodded. Everyone in the circle looked at them. He and Midas settled into the middle. Brutus grabbed Midas’ tie and tugged him into a long-kiss-lowkey-turned-into-a-makeout-session.Midas heard cheering as they kissed.(tbh i started this as a joke then it turned kinda serious oops)
Relationships: Brutus/Midas (Fortnite)
Comments: 9
Kudos: 9





	when the ember valley turns golden

Midas lit the matchstick with a quick flick. It burned fast, illuminating his dark bedroom. He used it to light his tall, thin red candle. Jules had told him it could burn for hours and hours, and, well, he trusted that woman with his life, so he trusted her word. 

“MICHAEL, SWEETIE, DINNER!” 

Midas sighed. "I’LL BE DOWN IN FIVE MINUTES.”

Goddamnit, he might as well finish his spell. He took the candle and tipped it over, letting the wax drip slowly onto a folded up piece of paper wrapped in twine. He ignored the drops that fell onto his thin fingers. “Make this night fun,” he whispered. When the paper was covered, he paused and meditated. 

Midas imagined golden light filling the space, surfacing from his soul, and traveling into the intentions he’d written down. 

“MICHAELLLLLLL!” 

Michael audibly groaned. 

Frustrated and anxious for Brutus to just get here, Midas blew out the candle and decided the spell was good enough. He shoved it into his pocket, grabbed his suit jacket from his bed, and stomped downstairs.

*****

The car door shut with a loud _CRASH._ Midas settled into his seat. “The rain’s fuckin’ crazy,” he remarked. 

Brutus scoffed, in that deep voice of his. “You didn’t get your suit wet, did you?” He, too, wore a black and white suit, but didn’t don the tuxedo like Midas did. 

Midas pouted. “Of course I did.” 

Brutus sighed, putting a hand on Midas’ thigh. "It’s okay.” He began to drive, not moving his hand away.

His other hand was on the steering wheel, and one of his legs was propped up on the seat, his foot resting against his thigh. They made a sharp right turn out of Midas’ neighborhood. Lorde’s “Melodrama” album blasted on the speakers. 

“Who do you think’s gonna be there?” Midas asked as they entered the highway—the opposite direction from Ember Valley High School’s Prom. 

"I guess lots of theater guys. They told me about this party.” 

“How about your football friends?”

“Maybe.” 

Midas liked to call Brutus the Troy Bolton of Ember Valley. Linebacker for the football team, talented actor during the fall plays and spring musicals. He had a lot of friends, in Midas’ opinion. a lot, maybe even too much, and that was coming from another theater kid. 

Obviously, Midas didn’t like large social circles. his real theater friends consisted of three other people. But… he loved the attention. He just preferred getting it through mystery, through rumors, through energy. 

In freshman year, he wanted the whole school to know his name. By now, in senior year, he’d accomplished his goal. He was a good actor. The theater teachers cast him well. People had seen his face on every single mandatory performance ceremony, and as the lead in almost all the productions since junior year. 

And the people ate his and Brutus’ relationship up. 

Though that was the one thing he felt somewhat strange about. No matter. He preferred the attention more.

“Fuck,” he remarked, breaking himself out of his daydreams. “Can we drop by Jules's shop?”

Brutus sucked in a breath. “Can you go later?”

“No. Shit. I promised I'd go for a reading. please?” Midas leaned towards Brutus. He imagined golden light washing over his boyfriend, convincing him. Manifesting that he’d agree.

“Alright. I guess the detour’s not so far.” 

Gazing lovingly at Brutus, Midas smiled. “You’re so kind to me.” 

*****

Jules flipped over the tarot cards quickly, but with grace. Midas noted his first reactions as they appeared—

Five of Swords: wonderful.

Five of Cups: wonderful. 

The Emperor: fantastic. 

“People really covet your popularity, huh?” Jules remarked. She adjusted the cards so they were all in line. The many silver rings stacked on her fingers glistened under the warm candlelight that solely illuminated the room. “I think a lot of people are shit-talking you.” 

Midas leaned back in his chair. "I wouldn’t be surprised by that.” 

“Mm, well, watch out. And be careful,” she addressed both of them. "I heard it’s going to storm tonight.”

***** 

Lightning first struck in the deep purple-saturated sky as they walked out of Brutus’ car towards the party, Brutus draping his coat over Midas. 

The house was situated along the lakeside, in some sort of gated community. It was one of those stereotypical suburbia homes, but for, like… the upper-middle class. Midas _wished_ he had a house as big as this. 

Everyone still out on the lawn greeted them with casual hellos, all acquaintances of Brutus. Midas smiled along with them. He noted the way they stared at him and Brutus—most likely with admiration, or jealousy, or something in between. Midas assumed everyone wanted a relationship like he and Midas had. Everyone was a horny teenager at Ember Valley High, after all. 

“Dude, wanna watch us play spin the bottle?” The kid who asked was that one trans cat boy from Midas’ English class, who also played minor roles in the plays they had. He wore a headband that had calico-patterned furry ears on them. On top of that, he was actually taller than Midas, so he looked tall and brooding. 

Brutus looked for Midas for confirmation. Midas smirked. “Yeah. Let’s go.” 

The music pulsed even louder inside. A fellow theater friend, Skye, handed Midas and Brutus red solo cups filled with unknown alcohol—or, well, maybe it was a mixture. Midas took a sip and held back a choke. Fucking jungle juice. 

Nonetheless, he decided he’d use the jungle juice as his choice to get drunk as hell for the night. 

As all high school planning goes, it took a long time to get everything organized. Eventually, Midas had to yell, “someone just spin the fucking bottle” in order to get everyone’s shit together. 

“Did they also give you Corona?” Brutus asked, raising his cup. 

Midas frowned. “No. Jungle juice. Wanna switch?” 

Brutus laughed, that deep, yet somehow bubbly, laugh of his. “Fuck no.” He wrapped his arm around Midas’ shoulder. Midas relaxed into his touch. “They’re really going all… out.”

They watched, half out of voyeuristic intent and half out of mortification, cat boy smash lips with some random emo kid Midas didn’t recognize. Among others in the circle were a few more theatre friends—Maya, Siona, Skye. To an extent, Midas sort of missed the stupid drinking games that involved sexual tension. But he wouldn’t trade Brutus for it. Nor did he miss the _really_ awkward moments that were always peppered in. Like right now: this girl making way too big of a deal for just a peck on the lips. Not even in the purposely attention-seeking way; she genuinely seemed like she didn’t want to do it. 

_Yeesh. Either do it or don’t and don’t make everyone wait for you to decide_ , Midas thought. 

“Come on, everyone,” he groaned out loud. “Brutus and I’ll show you guys how it’s done. Yeah?” Brutus seemed hesitant at first but nodded. Everyone in the circle looked at them. He and Midas settled into the middle. Brutus grabbed Midas’ tie and tugged him into a long-kiss-lowkey-turned-into-a-makeout-session. 

Midas heard cheering as they kissed. 

****

“Michael.”

“Yeah?” Midas made it a big deal to snuggle into the crook of Brutus’ shoulder as they sat on a plush velvet couch in the living room. He splayed his legs out and rested them on the coffee table in front of them and playfully compared them to the length of Brutus’. God, he loved how tall Brutus was. 

Couples floated in and out of the living room area, settling down on the other sofas, or getting more beer. At some point, a group of girls ran through and out the screen door, jumping straight into the pool, even in the rain.

“Lowkey, I wish we hadn’t done that. Everyone’s looking.”

"I mean, it doesn’t matter if everyone’s looking. We’re theater kids, we like attention, right? Attention’s kinda the whole point.” Midas thumbed the spell jar in his pocket. 

“Yeah, but it was like, kinda uncomfortable. For me.”

Midas could sense the possibility of drama coming on between them. He'd always tended to do things that made people uncomfortable. Some of that was being gay in public, some of it was wearing a dress for spirit week, some of it was honestly expressing his opinions. So he knew when conflict arose. 

And he’d aggravate it. It was his way of making his bullies feel like shit because Midas always won. 

“What… do you want to do about it? I thought it was fine. I thought it was good. We gotta normalize affection like this, don’t we—?” As he talked, he imagined his golden energy flowing into Brutus again. convincing him. 

“Michael,” Brutus said quietly, “This has been something I've been wanting to talk about.” 

Frustration built up in Midas’ chest. He furrowed his eyebrows, continuing to try and multitask manifesting and talking. “Can we talk about it after the party?” His grip on his spell jar tightened. 

Brutus resigned. “Yeah. Can we just hold off from the making out in public until then?”

“Okay. I can agree to those terms.“ 

Before Midas could really process what felt like impending doom to their relationship—God, did Brutus want to break up or something?—a loud girl standing behind them began gossiping. 

About them. 

Fucking Tina. 

“They’re like, Greek tragedies. And Michael’s whole thing about wearing gold and stuff is so stupid. God, I wouldn’t want to be them.” She giggled afterwards too. Which made Midas’ blood boil. 

“So Michael’s a modern-day Midas,” her friend added. 

“And Bruce is like, Brutus.”

“Exactly! They’re totally the type of people that peak in high school.” 

Midas stood. “What the fuck are you guys talking about?” 

They startled, but composed themselves. “Nothing,” Tina replied, smiling, acting all innocent.

"I heard what you were fucking saying about us.” 

Brutus stood, too. but not confront Tina. He put a hand on Midas’ shoulder and shook it. He always did it when Midas got too heated, and Midas had always promised himself he wouldn’t let Brutus calm him down. Because he deserved to be angry, whatever issue it was. 

“We weren’t saying anything,” she continued to lie. 

“What was up with all that greek tragedy bullshit?”

“What?” Tina laughed. "I think you’re just like, self-reflecting or something.” 

Midas scoffed. “As if you know anything about self-reflection. Look at that ugly ass perm of yours. And that sorry excuse for a dress. Do you think you’re in a Katy Perry music video from 2012? Go take a look in the mirror sometime and check yourself.” At that, Tina frowned. 

Victory Royale. 

“Michael, come on, let’s go. I love you, I don’t wanna see you like this.” Brutus tugged at Midas’ arm. He was definitely strong, but Midas fought back. 

"I don’t know,” Tina finally said, her tone marginally more pointed than before. “All those rumors floating around about you cheating seems a lot worse than how ugly my clothes are.” 

“What.” Midas seethed. 

“What?” Brutus said at the same time. 

Tina shrugged innocently and walked away with a smirk on her face. 

***** 

“Yeah. We’ve heard about it too,” Skye said, trailing behind Midas and Brutus. The rain had swelled and so had the wind. Brutus made no effort to stop Midas’ suit from getting wet. 

“Fuck,” Brutus swore. Loud. Midas cringed. “Who? Who did everyone say it was? When did this start?” 

"I don’t know. A few weeks ago? And, um, the sex details are… thorough.” 

“Fuck,” he repeated. “Why didn’t you tell us this before?” 

Skye didn’t answer that. 

"It’s not true,” Midas said. It wasn’t. It fucking wasn’t. 

“This is what we get for asking for attention all the time, okay? This pisses me off.” 

Midas disagreed—it was everyone else’s problem that they were circulating the rumor. Or theoretically, it was. but he couldn’t disagree with Brutus right now… 

They got back to the car. Skye left them alone after Brutus requested her to get more corona. Or something stronger. 

Brutus’ swearing drowned out and Midas let his anxiety take him over. 

_Brutus is being scary scarier than Midas had ever seen before and suddenly his height is not very hot it’s intimidating was he gonna get hit was he gonna get broken up with how was he gonna get home would they crash because they were both drunk—_

Brutus kicked the side of his truck. 

“Michael, get behind the truck, come on. People are watching.” 

Midas jolted and glanced to see a small group of people standing on the steps of the house, no doubt trying to see what was going on. Sighing, Midas sat down, leaning against the back car tire, not even caring about his clothes. He buried his head in his hands because for once, he didn’t know what to say. 

_“_ Did you actually—did you cheat?” The word sounded forced. It sounded terrible. 

“No. Are you gonna break up with me?” 

Brutus paused. “No. I don’t know. We need to talk.” 

_“_ God. Please don’t do that to me.” 

“Michael, we need to talk,” Brutus repeated. “Stop acting like you’re some kind of main character. You need to fucking communicate with me.”

“You’re scaring me,” Midas muttered. 

“Don’t antagonize me like that right now. Get in the car. Let’s just drive home.” He squatted down to Midas’ level and put a surprisingly gentle hand on Midas’ shoulder. It gave him the courage to calm down and clear his head. 

So much for a fun night. 

Despite it all, he began to manifest again. _This will blow over. Everyone will forget about it the moment we get up and leave._

“Are they still watching us?” Midas asked.

“Yes.”

"I need to fucking clear things up.” 

“No, you don’t. Michael, I want to talk to you and I want to go home. They don’t need to know what’s going on between us. Michael, don’t you dare—“

Too late. Midas stood and stared at Tina Olsen and her group of stupid friends staring back at him. 

He gave them the middle finger, adding a loud “FUCK OFF.” with it. "I DIDN’T CHEAT.” 

*****

The rumors continued to pervade to next week. Midas smashed his spell jar and Jules refused to give him a tarot reading about the subject, citing him to be in the “wrong headspace”. 

And, well, Brutus…

He and Brutus continued to communicate about their relationship, as if one day they would understand each other’s needs. 


End file.
